The conventional wisdom that you should idle your car up to operating temperature comes from the days of carburetors, which needed several minutes of idling to get up to operating temperature where they’d run smoothly.

However, with the advancements in motor technology most cars don’t have this anymore.

Why you don’t need to idle your engine any longer

Many of us will be waking up to this this morning (Image: Essex Live)

These days, cars primarily use fuel-injected engines and engine control units can adjust themselves to idle perfectly even in sub-zero conditions.

Instead, gentle driving is actually a better way to warm the engine quickly without putting too much load on it before it reaches operating temperature.